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News/International

Images of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Jesus are held up at a rally in Chavez' honor outside Miraflores Palace in Caracas Jan. 10. Venezuela's Supreme Court allowed indefinite postponement of his inauguration, scheduled for Jan. 10, raising ques tions about political leadership in the country. Chavez has not spoken or appeared publicly since undergoing a fourth cancer operation in Havana Dec. 11.

Shifts in balance of power create uneasy relations in Latin America

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LIMA, Peru - When Venezuela's bishops spoke out against postponing the inauguration of ailing President Hugo Chavez, the president's supporters accused them of meddling in politics, while government opponents praised their comments.

Young Syrian refugees stand outside their tents after heavy rain Jan. 10 at the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian border town of Mafraq. Snow, driving rain and howling winds in early January compounded the already desperate situation for Syrians caug ht up in 22 months of civil war seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Syrian refugees face new enemy: winter

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AMMAN, Jordan - Snow, driving rain and howling winds in early January compounded the already desperate situation for Syrians caught up in 22 months of civil war seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Georgie Henley is pictured with a lion named Aslan in the 2010 movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, based on C.S. Lewis’ book.

C.S. Lewis inspires a new generation

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OXFORD, ENGLAND - In a wooded suburb of this fabled university city, a battered typewriter sits on a desk beside a bay window that overlooks a tangled landscape of oaks and beeches. Nearby, ancient bookshelves guard a leather armchair surrounded by wall maps and pictures depicting a fantasy world.

Catholics gather for Mass with a group of bishops from other countries Jan. 6 in Zerga, Jordan. The bishops were in the Holy Land in early January to assess the needs of the people and Christian churches there.

Visiting bishops note strain recent events placed on Mideast countries

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JERUSALEM - Bishops who traveled to the Holy Land to assess the local church's needs noted the "profound anxiety" that the "dark and dramatic events" of the past year have caused in the region.

"Trust is essential for such an extensive and sensitive project, as the partners agreed from the outset," Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, the German Church's delegate for issues of sexual abuse.

German Church ends sex-abuse research inquiry, citing lack of trust 

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BERLIN - Germany's Catholic Church has withdrawn from an inquiry into sexual abuse by clergy, citing a breakdown of trust with researchers.

On January 7, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court order allowing government funding of research involving certain embryonic stem-cell lines

U.S. Supreme Court lets stand policy on embryonic stem-cell research funds

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 7 let stand a lower court order allowing government funding of research involving certain embryonic stem-cell lines.

Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo, Mexico, poses outside the diocesan seminary, where he celebrated the 25th anniversary of becoming a bishop Jan. 5. The new church-state relationship is an example of one of the many changes Bishop Vera has witness duri ng his quarter-century of being a bishop in Mexico, serving dioceses stretching from Chiapas on the southern border to Saltillo in northern Mexico.

Mexico has changed, but maybe not for better, says bishop

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SALTILLO, Mexico - Although church-state relations have thawed in the past 25 years, Saltillo Bishop Raul Vera Lopez said he remains dissatisfied with government restrictions on religion.

People attend a memorial service in late December at St. Theresa's Church in Madalla, Nigeria, for victims of a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, Abuja. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan urged religious leaders to help mold th e characters of their followers to help stop the current crises facing the country.

Nigerian religious leaders can help followers end nation's crises

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ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan urged religious leaders to mold the characters of their followers to help stop the current crises facing the country.

Historian Edward T. O'Donnell, an associate professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., poses in an undated photo. O'Donnell says Notre Dame's emergence as a college football power coincided with the emergence of a Iris h-American middle and upper class.

Notre Dame football's rise paralleled Irish-Americans' societal ascent 

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WASHINGTON - As Notre Dame prepared to play Alabama Jan. 7 in U.S. college football's Bowl Championship Series title game, it seemed like the clash of the titans.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, claimed that top Vatican officials told him not to be discouraged by official statements from the Vatican, because they did not reflect Pope Benedict XVI's true feelings

Calling Jews 'enemies' is 'unacceptable,' Vatican spokesman says

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Updated 01/10/13

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church remains committed to deepening its relations with Jews and finds it "absolutely unacceptable" to consider the Jewish people as enemies, the Vatican spokesman said.

A notice on the Vatican Museums' website informs patrons that they will be unable to pay using credit and debit cards beginning Jan. 1. The Vatican's point of sale agreement was terminated amid unofficial reports of regulatory concerns by Italian financ ial authorities. The Vatican said the no-plastic policy was expected to be short-lived.

Vatican suspends acceptance of credit cards amid tension with regulator

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VATICAN CITY -- Vatican City State vendors, including the Vatican Museums and supermarket, stopped accepting credit- and debit-card payments Jan. 1, citing technical difficulties amid unofficial reports of regulatory concerns by Italian financial authorities.

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